Big Third Quarter Pushes Women's Basketball Past Centenary

Big Third Quarter Pushes Women's Basketball Past Centenary

SHREVEPORT, La. — The Southwestern University Pirates returned from the holiday break with a 60-52 victory on the road over the Centenary College Ladies. 

Zhazze Brown led three Pirates in double figures with 16 points, four rebounds, and a team-high three assists in 35 minutes. The Pirates' guard was 3-for-7 from the field, doing most of her work from the free-throw line, where she shot 9-for-13. 

Southwestern started strong, getting out to an 11-2 lead early. Centenary turned to its reserves, getting four points from Bre Frierson on three shots and another basket from Ashlynn Albert to cut the Pirates' lead to 14-11 at the end of the first quarter. 

The Pirates shot just 6-for-14 in the second quarter and Centenary used a balance offensive attack, hitting 7-for-13 from the field to score 20 points in the quarter, generating a 16-3 run to take a 31-28 lead over Southwestern at the break. 

Southwestern put the clamps on defensively in the third quarter, limiting Centenary to just 5-for-16 shooting (31.3 percent) and a single free-throw attempt. The Pirates forced four turnovers, including three steals. Offensively, slashing forward Noel Pratts made all three of her shots, scoring six points, and Brown scored five as the Pirates outscored Centenary 20-10 in the third. 

A late run brought Centenary to within four in the last minute of the game but Brown and Courtney Maass closed it out with six clutch free throws. 

The Pirates shot 44 percent from the field and doubled Centenary in free-throw attempts at 24-12 but struggled to convert, hitting only 15. Centenary was held to just 36.8 percent shooting, including 3-for-18 from deep. 

Tori Carraway had 13 points and nine rebounds for Southwestern and Pratts finished with 10 points and two steals. Frierson was the only Centenary player in double figures with 16 points and seen rebounds while teammate Haylee Washington contributed eight points, nine rebounds, and five steals. 

With the win, the Pirates improve to 201 in conference play and 3-9 overall. Centenary falls to 3-8 and 1-2 in conference. Southwestern will return home to host Schreiner on Friday, Jan. 4 at 5:30 p.m.